You hate playing a song, yet they want to do it...

bullshark · #1 03-24-2008, 10:31 AM

What do you do? You suck it up and play it anyway? You make a different bassline that's more enjoyable to play and try to sell it to them? You voice your displeasure, and maybe use it as a bargaining chip to push songs you really like? Let them play it acoustic and butt out for that song?

It's not a bad song they want to do, I rather enjoy listening to it and I can see they have real pleasure playing it and singing to it; but the bassline suck and I hate playing it.

What to do? Advice?

stflbn · #2 03-24-2008, 10:35 AM

You shouldn't expect to love the bass line in everything you play. Some songs just call for simplicity versus creativity.

Let the others enjoy a song and find joy in knowing you're backing them up.

Now if 1/2 of the songs were a problem then it might be time to rethink your position in the band.

I hate mowing my yard, but I do it.
I hate painting, but my wife still manages to get me to change wall colors.
I hate hauling gear, but it's a required evil.

If you're happy with what you're playing even a majority of the time I think you're doing very well.

professor_bills · #3 03-24-2008, 10:36 AM

Play tambourine for that song

scottbass · #4 03-24-2008, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stflbn

If you're happy with what you're playing even a majority of the time I think you're doing very well.

+1. Developing a band's playlist can entail consensus, cooperation, negotiation, compromise and/or democracy (voting). Unless of course you are a member of a backing band, in which case you have no say in the playlist at all.

Many of us have operated quite successfully for a large number of years under all of these scenarios because the most important thing (at least to me and those like me) is gigging.

If you can't put up with some percentage of the songs not being your favorites, you don't belong in a band unless you happen to find three or more musical soul mates. Good luck with that!

For you to be asking a question like this makes me think this must be your first band. If so, congratulations! Enjoy it while it lasts. All bands end up breaking up and going in different directions sooner or later - except the Stones. And then you will start over on the process of consensus, cooperation, etc.

Captain_Arrrg · #5 03-24-2008, 11:00 AM

This is why other than a few standbys that we've all agreed on, the band I'm in sticks to originals. I guess that's what it comes down to; is your band a collaboration or is it mob rule?

JKT · #6 03-24-2008, 11:01 AM

+1 to everything and yes I would use it as leverageto get songs I liked on the list.

I rarely have a problem with anything chosen by others. I'm used to just roling with it and playing my best and yes, changing the bass part here and there if it felt right.

The upside of not complaining or getting involved a lot in tune selection is when I do finally pipe up and make a suggestion or request, it usually gets listened to.

JKT

bullshark · #7 03-24-2008, 11:04 AM

First band, yes (and I'm an old geezer), playing mostly for fun.Good advice here, I think I'll suck it up, put on my happy face and back them up. Thanks guy's.

scootron · #8 03-24-2008, 11:09 AM

I'm the old geezer in the younger band, too, and it hurts sometimes to play the stuff where the bassline sucks.

What I try to do is suck it up, do the best I can, and play the line the best possible. What I've found is that they appreciate me being a team player, and they honor my one hard and fast rule...no "Wonderful Tonight".

rfclef · #9 03-24-2008, 11:22 AM

Everything you co won't always be your favorite, unless you are a solo act (and maybe not even then...). Gotta be some compromise. Suck it up.

bullshark · #10 03-24-2008, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Arrrg

I guess that's what it comes down to; is your band a collaboration or is it mob rule?

It is very much a collab, and I'm happy with the way it's going. All the other songs we decided together, making sure everyone was happy with it. This single song they started playing and seemed to so thoroughly enjoy themselves that when I saw the bass chart, even thought I thought it sucked I had no heart to say anything at the time.

And this morning I was trying to memorize the song and I thought to myself "this completely suck, why am I going through this when there are a gazillion other songs we could do instead?".

Now, thanks in part to TB'er, I know the answer.

van_gogh_bass · #11 03-24-2008, 11:41 AM

Agree with many of the comments. I try to make an exercise out of the expereince. Here's what I do:

Example - we play She Sells Sanctuary by The Cult. Great song, always goes over.....but boring bassline (my opinion). Since it is basically a three note, repetitive pattern (D to C to G, in essence), I will sometimes play the line using the A and E strings, then maybe next verse play the entire line on the E string, then maybe later add the open D to the mix. It keeps my mind on the possibilities of the same note on different parts of the fingerboard.

Or another time, I might try adding in the three-finger right hand plucking style to work on that aspect of my playing, as long as it is smooth and doesn't detract from the pulse.

Since we are a three piece instruments + vocalist, I've started adding in little bits that other instruments cover in many of our songs to fill out our sound. In Sanctuary, there's an acoustic sounding guitar strum during when the singer pauses in between lines during the verses. Some times I'll play that line using the G octave (sometimes adding the fifth!) to fill out the sound, while pumping away on the low G that is the pulse of the song.

Either way, I'm trying to break out of the repitition mold of the line while playing my bass differetly.

Hope this helps. NO MUSTANG SALLY.

not_jason · #12 03-24-2008, 11:46 AM

The first band I was in, I joined after another bass player left. Most of the songs were fairly open ended, and I just noodled around with them to my heart's content, but there were a few where the bass line was very rigid and pretty much drove the whole song. I wouldn't have had a problem with it except I absolutely hated the bass line (I believe the guitar player probably wrote it, it had a lot of notes ringing into one another). I raised a bit of a stink about it, but I went along with it, even though I usually wished for death during the entire 8 minute duration.

Point is, it's pretty rare that you don't find yourself in that position at least a few times for every band you might happen to be in. My advise is to choose your battles carefully. If you CAN play this one without costing yourself too much dignity, I say just buck up and do it. That way, you have more leverage when the band suggests something even worse. For example, I'd be more willing to play a boring song than a bad song. So I'd save my fight for a later time when the guitar player suggests something that you're downright embarrassed to be associated with.

Eublet · #13 03-24-2008, 11:48 AM

Pretend your replacing the battery in your bass.

bullshark · #14 03-24-2008, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by van_gogh_bass

Agree with many of the comments. I try to make an exercise out of the expereince.

Yes, good idea. I already do something similar when we play a Nirvana song which, otherwise, would bore me to tears, something which I had strangely forgotten about.

Stumpy · #15 03-24-2008, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stflbn

You shouldn't expect to love the bass line in everything you play. Some songs just call for simplicity versus creativity.

Let the others enjoy a song and find joy in knowing you're backing them up.

Now if 1/2 of the songs were a problem then it might be time to rethink your position in the band.

I hate mowing my yard, but I do it.
I hate painting, but my wife still manages to get me to change wall colors.
I hate hauling gear, but it's a required evil.

If you're happy with what you're playing even a majority of the time I think you're doing very well.

+1

BillMason · #16 03-24-2008, 12:38 PM

Free Falling is one of a few that we play that I'd rather skip and use that time to beat myself over the head with my bass. But I do it without complaint, as the song would really suck without bass, and I'm all about how the band sounds, not how I sound.

Band sounds crappy = no gigs for Bill.

And also - some of the simple songs can be really fun to play, including Mustang Sally and Brown Eyed Girl. I always get a bass solo in BEG for example, but the simple bass lines in MS and FF are good opportunities to lock in with the drummer and develop a groove.

bikeplate · #17 03-24-2008, 12:41 PM

HI

If its your living, suck it up

One exception!! I hate Margaritaville and Jimmy Buffet. I always tell a band when I join or do a gig with that I will not play it under any circumstance. If im in a band and the insist on adding it, I quit. Not kidding at all! LOL!

Rob

barbarbass · #18 03-24-2008, 12:46 PM

I was in a band in college that wanted to be the second coming of the Allman Bros. Now, don't get me wrong, I've since come to appreciate the Allmans, but I really wasn't into that scene at the time (more of a Velvet Underground and Traffic guy, always).

Anyhow, I spent four years of my life learning nearly the entire Allmans catalogue -- was it a complete waste of time? No, not entirely. Some of the basslines were actually fairly tricky ("In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" is one such) -- so that taught me some dexterity.

The other thing it taught was "how to learn in time for a gig." Years later, I would be contacted by bands desperately needing someone to "learn twelve songs by Saturday." And I can do stuff like that -- just as long as I have a decent recording of the thing, I can probably figure out the part, and get it under my fingers by the time we have to go on-stage.

lpdeluxe · #19 03-24-2008, 12:53 PM

I generally accept songs I don't like as a challenge to my own ability to invent something fun to play that contributes to the song. The bass player takes care of the groove, and on some songs that's a handful anyway.

The only problem I've had is when a band added a new singer who was also a bass player and he tried to tell me how to play the bass (he knew one walking line, and to him, that was bass playing

). Luckily, the band broke up shortly thereafter -- the new singer was just a symptom of underlying problems.

BillMason · #20 03-24-2008, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bikeplate

HI

If its your living, suck it up

One exception!! I hate Margaritaville and Jimmy Buffet. I always tell a band when I join or do a gig with that I will not play it under any circumstance. If im in a band and the insist on adding it, I quit. Not kidding at all! LOL!

Rob

LOL, we also do Margaritaville.

I did put my foot down when they wanted to do "If I Had A Million Dollars." Cool bassline, but man, that song makes me want to expel. And then they wanted "YMCA" - my response was "There are so many good songs out there, we don't even have to go there, ever. Ever. I'm not playing it, sorry."

You know the thread "You Know You're In A Lame Band When..."